⚙️ Grammar · Verb Patterns: -ing & Infinitives
Verbs + -ing (Enjoy, Finish, Mind)
Some verbs are always followed by the -ing form of the next verb, never “to” — learn the list and stop making the classic “enjoy to watch” mistake.
Grammar › Verb Patterns: -ing & Infinitives › Verbs + -ing (Enjoy, Finish, Mind)
The rule in one sentenceAfter verbs like enjoy, finish, mind, avoid and suggest, the next verb always takes the -ing form — never “to” + base verb.
What’s going on here?
In English, when one verb is followed directly by another verb, the form of that second verb depends entirely on the first verb — there’s no logical reason, you simply have to learn which group each verb belongs to. One large group, including enjoy, finish, mind, avoid, suggest and consider, always takes the -ing form straight after it.
Real examples make the pattern stick fast: I enjoy watching The Dark Crystal on the biggest screen I can find. Have you finished watching The Manchurian Candidate yet? Would you mind turning the volume down during Dunkirk? In every case, the -ing verb comes immediately after the first verb, with no “to” anywhere.
It helps to think of the -ing form here as behaving like a noun — a gerund. I enjoy watching Ladyhawke works the same way as I enjoy the film: “watching Ladyhawke” is the thing you enjoy, just as “the film” is. That’s why “to watch” sounds wrong after enjoy — you wouldn’t say “I enjoy to the film” either.
🎬 Compare: “I enjoy watching Ladyhawke on IMAX” (enjoy + -ing) vs. “I want to watch Ladyhawke on IMAX” (want + to-infinitive).
Same idea, two different verbs before it — the first verb decides the pattern, not the meaning of the sentence.
The good news is that once you memorise which group a verb belongs to, it never changes — enjoy always wants -ing, in every tense: She enjoyed watching, she has enjoyed watching, she will enjoy watching Titane.
How to build it
The pattern
The star of First Knight enjoys playing against type, like in MirrorMask.
He doesn’t enjoy watching his own films back.
doesn’t/don’t + enjoy + verb-ingDo you enjoy rewatching Peppermint Candy?
Do/Does + subject + enjoy + verb-ingCommon verbs followed by -ing
- finish: Have you finished editing your festival highlights video?
- mind: Would you mind pausing Melancholia for a second?
- avoid: Try to avoid reading spoilers for Krull before it streams.
- suggest: My friend suggested watching Talk to Her instead of Beastmaster.
- consider / practise / risk / imagine / keep: Ava DuVernay considered casting a different actor before choosing David Oyelowo.
When to use which
Verbs that need -ing
- enjoy: We enjoyed watching Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse together.
- mind: I don’t mind waiting for the next Marvel trailer.
- finish: She finished filming her scenes for Water in six weeks.
- avoid, suggest, consider, practise, risk, imagine: all these want -ing straight after, no exceptions.
Watch out: these look similar but take to-infinitive
- want: I want to watch Winter’s Bone this weekend.
- decide: Wim Wenders decided to film Paris, Texas’s desert scenes in Texas.
- hope, need, promise, plan, refuse: all pair with “to” + base verb instead — see our companion lesson on verbs + to-infinitive.
Signal verbs: memorise this list
These verbs are always followed directly by the -ing form. Learn them as a group.
Visual guide
Teacher Teddy’s illustrated guide to this rule is being drawn — the full swipe-through infographic will appear here soon.
Common mistakes
❌ I enjoy to watch The Dark Crystal.
✅ I enjoy watching The Dark Crystal.
“Enjoy” is always followed by -ing, never “to” + base verb.
❌ Have you finished to watch The Manchurian Candidate?
✅ Have you finished watching The Manchurian Candidate?
“Finish” belongs to the -ing group in every tense, including the present perfect.
❌ Would you mind to turn down the volume during Dunkirk?
✅ Would you mind turning down the volume during Dunkirk?
“Mind” in this polite-request pattern always takes -ing.
❌ She suggested to watch Talk to Her instead.
✅ She suggested watching Talk to Her instead.
“Suggest” never takes “to” + base verb, only -ing (or “that” + clause).
Exceptions & tricky cases
1. “Stop” changes meaning with -ing vs to-infinitive. Stop + -ing means quitting an activity; stop + to-infinitive means pausing one thing in order to do another.
✅ She stopped watching Excalibur halfway through — it wasn’t for her. ✅ She stopped to watch the Excalibur trailer on TV before carrying on with dinner.
2. “Remember” and “forget” also switch meaning. With -ing, they look back at a memory; with to-infinitive, they look forward to a task.
✅ I’ll never forget watching The Water Horse for the first time in the cinema. ✅ Don’t forget to book tickets for the new Julia Ducournau film.
3. “Try” shifts between experiment and effort. Try + -ing suggests an experiment worth attempting; try + to-infinitive suggests a harder effort that might fail.
✅ Try watching Conan the Barbarian with the subtitles on — it changes the experience. ✅ We tried to watch the whole Three Colours trilogy in one night, but we fell asleep.
4. After a preposition, the verb is always -ing. This includes phrasal patterns like look forward to and be interested in, where “to” is a preposition, not the infinitive marker.
✅ Cinephiles are looking forward to seeing the next Kelly Reichardt film.
Practice: pick the right form
Eight quick questions on verbs followed by -ing.
1. I really enjoy ___ The Dark Crystal on the biggest screen possible.
“Enjoy” is always followed by the -ing form.
2. Have you finished ___ The Manchurian Candidate yet?
“Finish” takes -ing, whatever the tense.
3. Would you mind ___ down the volume during Dunkirk?
The polite request pattern “would you mind” always takes -ing.
4. Try to avoid ___ spoilers for Krull before it streams.
“Avoid” is always followed by -ing.
5. She stopped ___ Excalibur halfway through the film — it just wasn’t for her.
“Stop + -ing” means quitting the activity, which matches “halfway through”.
6. She stopped ___ the Excalibur trailer on TV before carrying on with dinner.
“Stop + to-infinitive” means pausing one activity in order to do another.
7. My friend suggested ___ Talk to Her instead of Beastmaster that night.
“Suggest” is never followed by “to” + base verb.
8. Cinephiles are looking forward to ___ the next Kelly Reichardt film.
Here “to” is a preposition (look forward to), so the verb after it must be -ing.
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